Retired Army officer wins seat on Mohegan Tribal Council

Published August 26. 2013 12:01AM

Updated August 26. 2013 12:18AM

Mohegan - A retired Army colonel whose brother sits on the nine-member Mohegan Tribal Council won his own seat on the council Sunday at the conclusion of weeks of voting among tribal members, tribal sources said.

Kevin Brown, 48, who graduated from Montville High School and the U.S. Military Academy in the 1980s, was elected along with incumbents Bruce "Two Dogs" Bozsum, the council chairman; William Quidgeon Jr., James Gessner Jr. and Kathy Regan-Pyne.

Ten candidates vied for the five seats up for election. Bozsum has served as chairman since 2010 and also held the office from 2005 to 2009.

The council governs the nearly 2,000-member tribe and also serves as the management board of the Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority, the entity that operates the tribe's Mohegan Sun casino in Uncasville and Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs, its racetrack casino near Wilkes-Barre, Pa. The authority is also pursuing a license to develop a resort casino in Palmer, Mass.

Kevin Brown, whose brother Mark has served on the council since 1995 and was chairman from 2000 to 2005, has been living in Manhattan, Kan., where he's been a doctoral candidate in security studies at Kansas State University. Before that, he was garrison commander of Fort Riley, Kan. He retired from the Army in 2011.

Council members elected Sunday will be sworn in at a ceremony in October, at which time the council will elect a chairman and other officers.

Quidgeon was the top vote-getter in the balloting that concluded Sunday with Kevin Brown garnering the second-highest number of votes, according to a tribal source who asked to remain anonymous.